Wilhelm von Humboldt et l'anthropologie comparée

In Humboldt’s essay on anthropology the science of anatomy plays the role of a model. The direct connection is the comparatistic method, according to which cultures are compared to each other in the same way in which human and animal body can be compared. In an age in which many different scientific fields in Europe are inclined to work in a comparatistic way, Wilhelm von Humboldt benefits of several influences (included Goethe, Blumenbach, the late French Enlightenment, the works of his brother Alexander). On this basis he builds its own theory of anthropological difference, which can be considered as the foundation of the methodology of the great linguistic essays written in his last years. Specific difference is what matters most in order to define every single human phenomenon within a certain field: peoples, languages, physiognomies, sexes, historical cultures are considered as “types”: specific and organic expressions of the whole human world.